Wireless communications have become pervasive in recent years. At first, telecommunications provided cordless handsets to enable consumers to use a home telephone without being restricted by a telephone cord. Mobile telephones further provided freedom to consumers by enabling them to use a telephone while away home. Finally, computers that were once attached to a wall socket to communicate over the Internet became wireless through the use of wireless routers and other wireless access points.
Mobility further expanded by commercial wireless access points becoming available and proliferating throughout society. Broadband wireless access points have become available at coffee shops, airports, hotels, and other commercial locations. These commercial wireless access points have become available for a number of reasons, including attracting computer users who enjoy accessing the Internet and generating network access fees. Commercial access points are provided by a commercial establishment becoming a reseller of network access. For example, Starbucks® coffee shops are resellers of T-Mobile® communications services. Each of these commercial companies financially benefit when users access the T-Mobile® communications network via the wireless access points within Starbucks®.
One situation that has developed by wireless routers becoming so pervasive is non-subscribers accessing wireless routers and network services being paid by their consumer subscriber neighbors. This situation arises when a consumer subscriber does not password protect access to the wireless router. In the case of a non-subscriber's unauthorized access of a subscriber's wireless router, this act is considered theft of wireless communications services. In the case where the subscriber knowingly allows for non-subscribers to access the wireless router, such an act is generally prohibited by terms and conditions of consumer service agreements between the service provider and the consumer subscriber.
Another situation that has developed is one where a third-party, non-communications carrier sells wireless routers that are connected to network connections of subscribers of communications carriers. The third-party, non-communications carrier sells subscription agreements to customers to access a network via these wireless routers. The customers of the third-party, non-communications carrier are able to connect to the network via the wireless routers without having to pay the communications carriers, thereby saving money. However, such configurations and subscription agreements are against the terms and conditions of subscription agreements of the subscribers of the communications carriers because, in effect, those subscribers providing access to non-subscribers are operating as resellers of network access. In some cases, the subscribers that provide access to non-subscribers are paid by the third-party, non-communications carrier to provide access to subscribers of the third-party, non-communications carrier network.
While wireless routers have enabled computer users to access the Internet with unprecedented freedom, bandwidth of these routers are relatively slow. Today's technology provides users with 50 megabit (MB) per second communications. However, these speeds are relatively slow when downloading large amounts of content, such as a movie.
A number of third-party bandwidth expansion products have been developed to increase bandwidth to those who purchase these bandwidth expansion products. One such product provides a subscriber with a device to aggregate bandwidth from local wireless routers. Essentially, communication with each local wireless router is performed in parallel. However, the act of bandwidth pooling by consumer non-resellers is also considered a violation of the terms and conditions of a communications carrier's subscription agreement because non-subscribers or users other than the subscriber who owns the wireless router are provided access to the wireless routers and telecommunications services without paying a telecommunications carrier for that access or expanded access.